Jason Saltzman is a seasoned entrepreneur and business writer. He is the CEO and cofounder of Relief, a financial wellness app.
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It seems like the debate over “hustle culture” is everywhere you look these days.
It’s a mindset that emphasizes working hard and constantly striving for success, often in the form of waking up at 5 a.m. to cram in a marathon before a cold shower and running three businesses, all while intermittent fasting.
All this often comes at the expense of one’s personal well-being. And fortunately, more members of Gen Z have pushed back on this toxicity.
Famed entrepreneur and early-stage angel investor Jason Calcanus posted a video on Twitter featuring a day in the life of a young employee, captioning it, “The TikTok generation is different.” The video begins with a leisurely gym session and company-provided breakfast, capturing the laidback style of today’s upcoming generation of workers.
The comments were off the charts, with many older generations chiming in, like me. It made me think back to my days first starting out in a sales calls center where if you were not on the phone, you would get an object almost instantly thrown at your head for not consistently “smiling and dialing.”
Make no mistake, I’m not condoning that behavior. But I am pointing out a big disparity between now and two decades ago, when work was what the word actually felt like: work.
As a CEO and manager of a diverse age group, I find it extremely helpful to see things from multiple sides. With the wisdom of age, I can see both pros and cons of hustle culture.
Let’s start with the pros.
The Pros Of Hustle Culture
• Increased productivity: Hustle culture promotes the idea of working hard and pushing oneself to achieve more, which can result in increased productivity and the ability to accomplish more tasks and goals. We spend most of our lives at work anyway—why not make them count?
• Motivation: Hustle culture can be a source of inspiration and motivation, encouraging people to set and achieve high standards for themselves to go above and beyond.
• Professional success: Because hustle culture enables individuals to achieve their goals and advance in their careers, it promotes the idea of taking ownership over one’s fate and responsibility for one’s own personal trajectory.
The Cons Of Hustle Culture
And now for the downsides.
• Burnout: Hustle culture can almost invariably lead to burnout, as the constant pressure to work hard and achieve more can take a toll on an individual’s mental and physical health. Most of us leave all-nighters behind after our college days for a good reason: Our bodies just can’t keep up.
• Lack of work-life balance: Hustle culture can result in individuals neglecting other important aspects of their lives, such as relationships and self-care, in favor of work. But as one great book puts it, “Your degrees won’t keep you warm at night.”
• Stress and anxiety: Hustle culture can also create a stressful and anxiety-inducing environment, as individuals may feel pressure to constantly perform and achieve success. It’s a hamster wheel you can never get off of.
Healthy Ways To Integrate Hustle Into Your Work Life
So where do we find greater balance, or at least integration? In my experience of running my own businesses for the past 20 years, here are several ways to work harder without facing burnout:
• Prioritize tasks. Focus on the most important tasks first, and prioritize them based on their level of urgency and importance. This will help you to work more efficiently and avoid feeling overwhelmed by a long to-do list. In our always on, always connected world, there will always be boxes to check and tasks to knock out. Writing a list of priorities helps to ensure that you run your day rather than allowing your day to run you.
• Set realistic goals. Setting achievable goals will help you to stay motivated and avoid feeling overwhelmed by unrealistic expectations.
• Manage your time. Use time-management techniques such as the Pomodoro technique to break your work into manageable chunks and increase your focus and productivity. Almost anything you want to achieve is possible by breaking it up into smaller tasks.
• Take breaks. Regular breaks throughout the day can help to refresh your mind and prevent burnout. We aren’t cogs in an assembly line. Taking short breaks to stretch, walk around or get some fresh air can help to increase your productivity and improve your focus.
Work is intended to enable a better life, not the other way around. Think of what Stephen King said about the balance of life and work, as shown in the arrangements of his office: “Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn’t in the middle of the room. Life isn’t a support-system for art. It’s the other way around.”
• Practice self-care. On that same note of taking breaks, make sure you’re taking care of yourself physically and emotionally. Eating well, getting enough sleep and engaging in regular exercise and self-care activities will help you to maintain your energy levels and stay focused throughout the workday. View them as nonnegotiables. The work will keep coming. But you only have today to exercise.
• Find work-life balance. Make sure you’re taking time to enjoy your hobbies and spend quality time with your family and friends. This will help to prevent burnout and give you a fresh perspective on your work.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to remember that working hard doesn’t mean working nonstop. A sustainable approach that includes rest and relaxation is important for both your physical and mental well-being.
You need to work hard to make an impact, but you can’t overwork yourself so much that you completely burn out. Like everything in life, achieving anything substantial requires balance. The same applies with hustle culture.
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